Halloween 2009

Halloween started off with Suvi being sick-she had a fever of 101.8 in the morning. She stayed home, got some motrin and Markku and I went to swim class. Went I returned, she still had a fever. So, with all the hullabaloo about swine flu (she is not yet vaccinated), we headed out for the doctor. Being a Saturday, I was limited to the ER or urgent care. We spent 3 hours at our local urgent care-she tested negative for swine flu, but that apparently means nothing as the swine flu bedside test is about 10% accurate! But she was now 102.8 and really not feeling well, runny nose and cough. So they wanted to take some chest x-rays and monitor her until her fever went down. Chest rads were clear so then we just had to wait until she acted like a toddler. Once the doc saw her running around the room, even with a 101.6 fever, he was convinced she could go home. They have no idea if she has the flu. She how she does they say.

Of course now we were late for trick or treating! We rushed home and luckily mummo and Isa had Markku really excited and ready to go. Markku was Thomas the train-he picked it out-and Suvi was supposed to be Dorothy from Wizard of Oz. Suvi was feeling a lot better after motrin and Tylenol, so we dressed her up and let her walk around to a few houses (we were bad parents I know. But we didn't let her touch any kids!). they really loved trick or treating! It took a while for them to get it, but they sure liked it after the first few houses gave them candy! We didn't see any other Thomas' but we sure did see a million Dorothy's. So much for original!

Here she is with Toto and her ruby red slippers! She and Markku loved those shoes! I made them by gluing red sprinkles over the top of red satin shoes. They looked awesome!

Here we are ready to go out trick or treating.

I had to work the next 2 days, and Heikki was babysitting. When I came home after the first day, about half the candy was gone! I had said that morning that Markku could have 3 pieces of candy that day-boy oh boy someone didn't listen! After Monday at work, there literally was no candy left! I was so upset-no one needs to eat that much candy in 2 days! Especially since I wasn't home to eat it too! Markku did point out to me (after I told him how upset I was) that "Isa ate some too!" Well, I am glad it wasn't only the kids!!!

Suvi got better after 2 days of fever so I doubt she had the flu after all. Now we must wait and see when and if she can get vaccinated for swine flu. She is under 2 so she cannot get intranasal like Markku got and then our doctor does not want to use the multi use vials as they contain some thimerosal (even though it is reportedly safe!). So we are still waiting! I know many children have gotten the flu and parents say symptoms are mild, but I have hears accounts of perfectly healthy children dying. I am not willing to take that risk, it really does alarm me! So more vaccines for the kiddos!

Markku has started soccer. He was so excited to play. He would run around and kick the ball and say "I am a winner!" I do not have photos yet....mainly because he refused to even walk onto the field the first day. He just sat by the sidelines saying " I don't think so. I don't know how. I am so tired." I was so mad at him for not trying...but then he did fall asleep on the short car ride home! He really was tired. Then the next week I was working and Heikki took him and literally moved his foot for him to kick the ball. He eventually got into it, but mostly just ran around after the other kids. His first game was Saturday, but I was out of town so Mummo Frederick took him. He did sit on the bench with kids but just stood still when it was his turn to rotate onto the field! But it is a start. Unfortunately they did not have the game schedule out when I signed him up and we will miss all the rest of the games due to them conflicting with swimming! Oh well. It is just exposure right now anyways.

Suvi, now feeling much better, is really turning into a book lover. See her with her book? She almost always has one in her hands and reads to herself or brings it to use to read to her! It is very cute.

Big boy firsts

Markku is a school boy now! He goes to First United Methodist Church preschool in San Marcos on Tues and Thurs. Here is a photo of his school- they have a pumpkin patch in October.

Here he is walking down the hall on his own to get to his classroom. He has his race car lunchbox by his side.

This is his classroom and his teacher, Ms. Melissa:

He was very excited to go. Here he is with Suvi, waiting to leave for his first day of school. He picked out his own clothes too:

Of course, with school comes homework (yes, preschoolers have homework!!!). He had to decorate his pumpkin. We were at our new Target in Kyle (that was one happy day for me when they finally opened! My own Target only minutes from my house!!!!!) and Markku spotted some firetruck stickers and said "we need to buy them for my pumpkin". He remembered he had to decorate it! So we bought them and he has the only pumpkin with firetrucks on it! There is a mouth, nose and eyes as well, but they are just randomly stuck on so it just looks funny! He is very proud of his pumpkin.

The end of Sept/early October also brought us some much needed rain. We are in such a drought here that even with tons of rain this month we are still in a severe drought in Kyle/Hays County. It is amazing how much it can rain here! One of the rainy cold days was the day we had tickets to go see Thomas the Tank engine. I was not too prepared and forgot to charge my batteries, so I only got a few pictures before the camera died. But here is one of Thomas arriving:

Markku and Suvi were both tickled beyond belief to see him. They were in awe! Suvi just pointed and screamed! It was like seeing a rock star... We did have fun with Mummo, Ukki and Isa so it made for a great day out. The rain even stopped for us for our visit, thank goodness.

One beautiful fall day I decided we would finally go visit the Austin Zoo. So Markku, Suvi and I went to feed the animals and see rescued wildlife. The Austin Zoo is a rescue zoo, so it's animals are limited to those that they have had to rescue. They have goats, llamas, pigs, chickens, peacocks, lions, tigers, wolves, turtles and birds. And a few monkeys too. It was small but a nice place to visit for the afternoon. The lions were roaring when we got there...it was a little freaky, like maybe they had escaped and were about to hunt us down. But we actually never even saw them stir as they were either asleep in the grass or inside (the inside one was making all the racket). The kids got to feed the goats and llamas. They loved that. And there was a small train to ride as well.

Markku is also learning to ride his bicycle with training wheels. He is actually riding it! He can't turn yet or go up even the slightest hill, but he is pedaling.

He is going to start in an indoor soccer league this week as well. We are trying to get him involved and playing with other kids and learning how to be on a team, etc. He is not quite getting the idea of sharing...we are battling it out at our house right now. His teacher told me he was a little worse at sharing than most of the other kids in his class...great! I am definitely seeing that at home as well. But hopefully we will get through this phase soon, and maybe even Suvi will learn how to share with all our training, fighting and taking toys away since no one wants to share!

We have had a busy month with Heikki going back to Corpus Christi for his 2 weeks of active duty and me working at the emergency clinic and one clinic in San Marcos/Wimberely.

We are getting ready for Halloween. I think our new neighborhood will be really busy with trick or treaters unlike our last ones....I wonder how much candy I need to buy!

Big Boy

Well, our last month has been exciting around here. Markku is now almost officially potty trained! He started in August (on his own) and then took a little back slide after our vacation to Park City. He decided it was too easy to pee in pull ups (still went poop on potty). But then we got a call that he got into a part time preschool in San Marcos--but he had to be in underwear! So we bit the bullet and, while I conveniently went out of town for a weekend, had Mummo, Bill, Isa and Uncle John potty train him fully! It went great (even Mummo and Isa say that and they were here with him!). So now he hasn't had an accident in quite awhile, (but still sleeps in pull ups). He did discover one day that peeing in the yard was fun. I am not such a fan, but his mummo thought it was ok so he did it a lot. He would run outside naked and pee, then come back in. One time, he was wandering around with the underwear around his knees. I went out and asked him to get dressed. He told me I needed to wipe him because he went la (poop). Sure enough, I saw poop that looked just like his in the yard! I think we may have broken that habit, but am a little fearful I will get a phone call from his school...

So now that that has been tackled, he gets to start school on Tuesday. I am so sad because I will miss it, I actually have work scheduled! Mummo Frederick will take him and I know she will take plenty of pictures for me! Then I will take him Thursday and hopefully he still likes it! He went out and bought new underwear and a lunch box and is ready to go to school. He was a little worried the other day. I told him that he would go to school by himself and that Suvi and I would be at home waiting for him. He looked very worried and said, "Will you drive home? I do not know how to drive the car!"

I am not sure I mentioned it earlier, but he is in a big boy bed as well (well still his crib but no side on it, so he can get in and out!. What a big boy I have now. I can't believe how fast he seems to be growing. He did ask for the crib rail to be replaced the other night because his toys kept falling out of bed.

Suvi is starting another tantrum/screeching phase. It is lots of fun. Her scream can wake the dead, so I figure she is practicing for Halloween. I am wondering what developmental phase she is going through-what milestone we may soon see since her tantrums had calmed down quite a bit during the summer, but have returned full force now. She is also eating me out of house and home. She eats about twice what Markku eats!

I have been filling in shifts at the emergency clinic and am trying to find more daytime work. I start at a new clinic tomorrow and work Tuesday, but then only have emergency shifts the rest of the month! Yikes. We see interesting and complex cases. The one that stands out most for me was a 6 month old puppy that came in Friday night. He had been vomiting/diarrhea and not eating for 3 days and was diagnosed with a GI parasite 2 days before. He was not responding to treatment so was referred back to us. He was very sick. He was extremely dehydrated, vomiting, very painful in his abdomen, had a heart arrhythmia and had enlarged lymph nodes. He had what appeared to be a large kidney on his x-rays. I did some blood work and found he was in kidney failure, anemic and had very few blood platelets. He was only 6 months old! Our best guess was something infectious, we worried about leptospirosis ( a bacterial infection found in water sources, carried by wildlife) or a tick borne disease. We started him on fluids and found he did not produce any urine. His owners will not give up. He is on fluids, receiving blood transfusions, had in a urinary catheter and many medications (antibiotics, drugs to stimulate him to urinate and kick start his kidneys). Nothing was working, so he is now receiving peritoneal dialysis. I had never seen that done before so it has been very interesting from that point of view-a drain was surgically placed into his abdomen so fluids can be flushed in, set for a while and then drained out. This helps relieve some of the toxins that are building up in his blood stream since he cannot produce urine. It is trying to buy him some time while we try to fight the underlying infection we think he has. His bill is likely to be $7-10000 . Most owners are not willing to pursue this type of therapy. I really would love for him to make, but really do not have much hope that he will. He is one of the sickest pups I have seen in awhile.
Another crazy case was a 10 yr old iguana! He got into ant poison and was very lethargic. He would take one breath every 5 minutes or so, we always thought he was dead. He had blood drawn (a tech actually knew how to draw blood from an iguana!!!) and a interosseous (bone) catheter placed so he could receive IV fluids. That was crazy and am happy that he was actually someone else's case. I would have had NO idea how to treat him.

Heikki is working lots and will be spending 2 more weeks in the Coast Guard at the end of the month to help us pay our bills while my job is in transition. He does enjoy his time there and has lots of time to play out in the gulf even. Since Suvi has not been sleeping through the night I am sure he will enjoy his sleepful nights away-even though he will miss us.

Park City Utah

We just returned from a week in heaven! We were in Park City, Utah. The mountains were beautiful, the temperature perfect, and we had great friends to spend it with. We stayed in a gigantic 5.5 bedroom log house in Deer Valley. It had a beautiful view of the valley. See photos for proof!

The house belongs to a friends company and she gets to bid on vacation weeks and decided to invite us (as well as several other families. These are Heikki's friends from King's Point, the Merchant Marine Academy). Thank goodness she still has her job! It was actually very interesting that of the 4 families present, one of the spouses from each family was unemployed/laid off in the past year. Another family who could not make it had both spouses lose their job in the past 1.5 years (they both have new jobs thankfully, which is why they were unable to take vacation time).

We spent the first day exploring Park City where the kids met a (fake) moose and lovingly walked together nicely with their new best friend Ava.

Heikki tried hula hooping with Suvi. Markku was too shy to even try. This was at their Park Silly Sunday Market.

We went hiking at Sundance Resort-a breathtaking place. We rode the ski lifts up and then did a 1.5 mile hike with the kids, then rode back down. It was a fun day.

Look at these giant dandelions!

We went back to Sundance the next day and rented bikes for a ride down the Provo River into Provo Utah. Tricia and Cesar went with us, and it was hard work pulling the bike trailer back up the river path on the return ride. Cesar, me and Heikki all took turns. Tricia, who is 5 months pregnant, still beat us all!

This is Bridal Veil Falls.
We also drove along the highest paved road in Utah-up to 10,500 feet or something like that. It was a beautiful drive with a pretty alpine lake at the top and the Provo waterfalls were beautiful.

Right after taking this photo Markku went in for a swim unexpectedly, and luckily Heikki caught him before he slid down or went over the rest of the falls! I was so scared for that second that he was in the water! Suvi then went running into Mirror Lake. Keep in mind that the water temps were likely in the low 50s or something. Very cold! I guess that is their Finnish blood.

We did a few more short hikes. One at Wasatch State Park where we walked to an old pioneer farm and picked apples. Markku really liked that part, although he complained a lot while hiking that he was soooo tired. Poor guy, he was at altitude and only 3 years old. Suvi got to ride in a back pack!

Markku and Heikki went river rafting (Suvi was too young to go so I stayed with her). No pics as Heikki did not bring the camera. It was more of a float since it is so late in the season. But they still had lots of water, and coming from central Texas and the drought this place was luscious and green and had so much beautiful water!

Markku finally rode the Trolley on our last night there. He kept asking to and we kept expecting to have more time. Look at that face...I am glad we made it before we left. He had a blast and it was just a quick loop around town. Suvi was home sleeping already!

We spent time eating, reading, playing at the house and just having a really nice time.

This is our friend Rachel and her daughter Nina. They used to live in Austin, but now California. You can ask Nina: "Where are you from?" She says "Texas". She also says "Hoo Koo" She is a true Texan even at 17 months.

Markku would fall asleep exhausted while still playing!

Heikki too was exhausted-Heat exhaustion hit him hard when he tried mountain biking at Sundance. No pictures of this, but afterwards, when he was better, I was wishing I had for this blog! He was pale as can be and very sick! Luckily we caught it early and were able to get him rehydrated and cooled down. He is fine now.

It was great to see these old friends again and to spend time with the kids together. Soon enough the trip was over, and we were packing to go home. We are looking forward to our next trip, maybe in the winter?

Busy busy busy

Well, it has been a very busy time and I have been a bad bad blogger! But, I did spend over 1 hour tonight on this very blog just to have all of it deleted! I am not too happy now, and will try to just pick up on the highlights! Oh, and it will be in reverse chronology due to the fact that I am unable to move the photos without deleting everything!

We finally made it to the Austin Steam Train ride, only to find out that the steam engine is in parts all across the country. So we rode a diesel and Yes, Markku did notice the difference and asked to ride the steam engine! He still had a great time though. We rode about 3 hours through the hill country to a town called Bertram. Then we rode back to Cedar Park.

Here is Heikki and the kids outside the train

Markku and Suvi watching the scenery go by

Heikki's mom has a photo of each one of her 4 children in this cute red outfit holding the same teddy bear. So we have one of Markku when he was a baby (still need to get it scanned onto my computer) and this one of Suvi:

I love her smile on the left (she is wearing a back pack, one of her favorite things), and on the right I think she looks just like me when I was a baby! The funny thing is this outfit is from the 70's so it could have been a picture of me!

We went to the children's museum in New Braunfels (about 30 miles south of Kyle). They had cute mini furniture where Markku wanted to read to Suvi.

My mom and I were busy putting furniture together for my new house. The kids loved the boxes:

Markku is not much of a drawing/coloring person. he likes it for about 2 minutes then he is done. Suvi loves to color and draw. Especially if she can eat the crayons! Look how well she holds the crayons:

Here is a photo of the 2 of them helping me and mummo with a futon chair:

I will rent out these two helpers for a reasonable price! (Mummo NOT included).

We finally celebrated Markku's birthday party in early July. It was a pool party at our neighborhood swim center. It was a blast. He had 2 cakes-one yellow rescue truck made by me and a train made by his mummo Frederick! 2 cakes-what a lucky boy. He had lots of friends to help open gifts as well:

We did make it to Kyle's fireworks this year. It was lots of fun-the kids enjoyed it. Last year Markku was afraid since they sound like thunder, but this year he was ok. He was worried about Tillie at home since he knew she was afraid!

It has been an unbearably hot summer with 65 days of 100+ temperatures here. The record is 69 so we are definitely going to beat that! We have a good month of really hot temps then it is usually in the 80s by October! We have a severe drought going on, so we have to put a hold on any landscaping at our new house. Things are getting very dry.

Markku is talking up a storm these days-in English and finally starting in Finnish as well! He pretty much says every word in English now! He even tells me he loves me. He tells Suvi as well. I hear him say "I love you Suvi. Do you love me?" He is starting to teach Suvi and he even was teaching her Finnish the other day! "Say kissa Suvi, kissa" That means cat. Suvi says "Meow!". She is also starting to talk. She has several words now-mama, meow, bye bye, night night, back pack, she growls for bears and other growling animals and neighs for horses and goats. She LOVES to read books. You will almost always find her sitting in a chair reading a book, or she brings you one to read to her.

Markku is now sleeping in a big boy bed and is starting to go potty on a potty. He isn't trained to either yet, but we are getting better and better each day! Hooray! But where did my little boy go?!

Markku now weights about 35 pounds and was 39 inches in May. He is taller now as his 3 year old pants and PJs are to short for him. But he still wears 2 year old shorts since he is so skinny! His BMI was 15.5 in May. No body fat there. He is a true Texan as he wears jeans everyday he can and is freezing if it goes into the 70s.

Suvi is now about 26 pounds and was 32 inches (90%) at the end of July, but she too has recently had a growth spurt. They are both tall children for their ages. There was a teacher at the park the other night who thought Markku was in kindergarten this year!

Heikki was away for most of this summer. He spent 2 1/2 weeks in June in Corpus Christi for the coast guard and then spent July 14-Aug 14 in Virginia in a training course for inspections for the Coast Guard. It has been a long time without him here-the kids were really missing him! Of course in between he still has his work with ExpressJet to keep him away 4 days a week!

I too have had some changes. We have been real slow at work. And actually it has slowed down since they hired me 2 years ago. So, like the rest of America, my job was downsized and I was let go. I am still stunned and frustrated and angry. I am going to be doing relief work for the time being, but now there are 35 of us relief vets (there were 20 when I was reliefing 2 years ago) and with the economy much less work around town. Add in my non-compete clause for 2 years and I am not seeing a whole lot of work come my way! We will see what the future brings. For September it means a lot of emergency work!

Well, after another 30 minutes trying to re post everything-I am exhausted and afraid it will all disappear again! So, good night!

I guess We are up to May

Things are happening too fast to keep everyone updated! I need more time, more sleep and more patience! So please bear with me! To save time, since I downloaded pics in chronological order, they of course have most recent at the top of the page. I could rearrange but that would take forever (which I have already mentioned I have no time!). So, I am going from most recent back to May!!

Heikki is doing his 2 weeks active duty for the Coast Guard down in Corpus Christi, TX. We went down to visit him for Father's Day weekend. Here we are going to breakfast on the Navy base in Corpus. Markku was having a bad day, so he wouldn't look at the camera!

Suvi was playing on the playset. Markku was off crying or pouting so no pics of him! I did mention he was having bad day! He was really tired-we kept him up late the night before, and boy did we pay (both kids were tired on Sunday as were we!). Saturday we had gone to the beach and had a perfect day! The kids were so much fun to be with! They loved swimming! They loved the waves and the sand! The water here is REALLY warm and it is around 100 degrees and Corpus is VERY humid. I really wish I could figure out how to download video as they were having such a blast and I would love to share it with y'all! But here are some photos instead (not quite as good at capturing the pure joy, but they will do!

Of course there was also planes, helicopters, kayaks, boats and you name it here on base! This is an old trainer-not used any more.

Just about 2 week before this trip, we were in Portland, OR for my sister Jenn's wedding. She and Dan finally decided to tie the knot after something like 12 years of dating. They still live in different countries, but maybe that can be rectified now! Markku was ring bearer, Suvi a flower girl and I was Matron of honor. We also visited my in-laws. Here is Suvi on Puget Island with some sort of elf hat on-something her Aunt Liisa made or wore or I don't know, I didn't get the whole story, but Suvi loved it!

Markku fits in Portland so well. He loves public transit, something Texas is sorely lacking! Here Markku is waiting for the street car-it is FREE downtown so we rode it around. Notice also he is carrying his model airplane. The streets are of course wet-it was raining. What a surprise! I just love the intent concentration-he did not want to miss that train!

Of course the reason we were there to begin with, Jenn's wedding. I don't have any of the professional photos yet, but here are some Heikki took...

This is of course the wedding party. Jenn wore a beautiful blue dress and the whole color theme was brown and blue. Even the cupcakes matched! My mom made the flowers out of felt.

Suvi loved her job as flower girl, but she preferred Jenn's bouquet-it was the biggest! Markku was very busy playing trucks and being bribed with candy to be good, be quiet, walk down the aisle, sit still, don't cry, etc to get too many pics of him! But he looked pretty cute himself!

We have seen Ukki and Mummo Frederick very little (except at the wedding), but back on May 31 we went to their house and swam and celebrated my birthday.Once again pure joy-my kids love to swim! Markku is mostly a blur and he jumps in swims, gets out and repeats over and over. He swims all the way across the pool.

Markku just jumped in-I just got the splash!

May 12 was Markku's third birthday. We celebrated with Mummo and Bill-my parents were not there and no party as both Suvi and Markku had had fevers just 2 days before! We had to cancel his party. (Don't worry, we have another one planned for July 5 and it is a pool party!)

Of course even if you have a fever you get to open presents!

Wow! A recycling truck!

Look at his cake that I made! No party but we had a really cool fire engine cake! My mom helped=but I did most of the decorating. Now I have to try again for the July 5th party! Yikes! Markku wants a yellow one next time he told me! He didn't like red Icing!

OK I think that gets everyone caught up. Now for some cute things that Markku has said:
1) We are learning the sounds that letters make (r says errrr!) So one night in the tub he asks, "What does 2 do?" I tried to explain that 2 is a number and doesn't have a sound. I am not sure he believe me!

2) We have been having some trying days sometimes. I can get overwhelmed and may have a few instances where I may raise my voice in exasperation (or desperation)! One night, I was trying to get Markku to listen and stop splashing water out of the tub and onto his sister. So I got mad after the third time. I yelled. Markku started to cry. So I explained that he has 2 choices, he can obey me with 1-2 warnings and get a nice mommy or try to push it and disobey me and get a mean mommy. "Your choice, nice mommy or mean mommy!" Well I of course felt guilty as soon as I said it, and figured he didn't really understand. But he did. The next day or so we were watching a Care Bears video and a mean ghost like creature with red eyes and a hood appears. He tells me it is scary. Then he tells me it is "mean mommy". Nice hunh??? By the way, the character's name is No Heart.

3) Markku was telling me he was all done with dinner. He says, "My belly way top!" He didn't eat much so I asked, Are you sure? He replies as he is lifting his shirt: "Yes, see?" He points to his tummy!